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More than 6,000 lecturers laid off in Malaysia last year

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Berita Daily has reported that over 6,000 lecturers in public universities, including professors, were either terminated from their jobs or had their contracts not renewed last year due to budget cuts.

Currently, it is estimated that the total number of public lecturers is at 29,000. According to Prof Dr Mohd Idrus Mohd Masirin, president Malaysian Academic Association Congress (MAAC), public universities had been adversely affected by the budget cuts in 2016, by at least 30% to 40%.

He said in the report that the education ministry’s move had forced universities to cut academic staff.

Dr Masirin even highlighted that some public universities had even resorted to not hiring administration staff to keep costs low. He commented: “There are universities which have frozen staff intake, while some have decided not to renew contracts of academic staff.”

Touching more on the nation’s salary grading system, he added: “Even if they hire, it would be only for critical areas. If previously a professor was paid under Jusa A, he or she would be downgraded to Jusa C which pays much less.”